To go hiking without Oliver feels both strange and sad; there is something essential missing from the whole experience. Still, I know Oliver does no longer have the physical capacity needed for hiking, and I would miss hiking too much to give it up entirely. Therefore, it was comforting that the first hike at home would be in the company of a few old friends and colleagues; I was also dog sitting Chiko that day so, of course, he also joined us.

A hiking trail leading through the Småland forest landscape and places with beautiful views along a path that in the past was known and feared for highwaymen sounded very appealing to me. I saw before me paths weaving their way through deep and mossy coniferous forests and over stony hills in a landscape that would remind me of John Bauer’s paintings. I was wrong.

Fjällmossen is a nature reserv in Kolmården known for its old pine forest, open landscape of bogs and for being the home of the protected orchid dactylorhiza sphagnicola. It was here we went when I was invited to join a day hike one Saturday in March.

Do it and then do it better! The first time I slept outdoors with Oliver and Charlie in the winter all three of us were cold, the dogs more so than I. I had many ideas on how they would stay warm in the future and eventually decided on converting two sleeping bags to fit them.

To sleep outdoors during the winter-half year was something that I already in the Autumn had decided was not for me, I get cold too easily. It was a new fact I had learned about myself, and one I had a difficult time to make peace with. But sometimes one can be too quick to reach conclusions.